In late 2019 Spravato was licensed for use in the UK. The current license holder is Janssen-Cilag and the medicine is listed in the British National Formulary as:
“Available in the UK. Price 1 x 28mg nasal spray = £163“
To access esketamine for depression, a prescription written by a psychiatrist is needed. Psychiatrists in the UK work either within the NHS (where you can potentially source the prescription + medicine for free) or from the Private sector (at a cost). Even though the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE)4 has shown esketamine has positive effects it has limited availability on the NHS as it is not generally considered cost effective. The only publicised NHS availability of esketamine is in Scotland where the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) accepted the use of esketamine (Spravato; Janssen) nasal spray for use within NHS Scotland for adults with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder on 8th September 2020.
This does not mean it is not available eslewhere in the UK, only it is unlikely you can access the medicine through an NHS GP, you will need to consult outside of the NHS i.e. via a private prescriber.
The main source of esketamine for depression in the UK is via private medical clinics5. The license of esketamine in the UK requires patients to meet the following three conditions:
If you meet the above crietria and are interested in obtaining treatment we have found the following clinics as possible sources of the treatment.
In the event that you need further help in sourcing the medicine of finding if you are eligible, contact our Psychopharmacologist specialist via this link.
Spravato is intended to be self-administered by the patient under the direct supervision of a healthcare professional. A treatment session consists of nasal administration of Spravato and a post-administration observation period. Both administration and post-administration observation of Spravato should be carried out in an appropriate clinical setting.
There are some clinicians administering the drug in its original ketamine form as ‘off-label’ treatment, below is a list of what is available in the UK:
We will be continually updating this blog (last updated 30th July 2020) to chart esketamine’s progress so if you are interested and would like alerts please consider following us on social media or subscribe to this blog for further updates.
Our prescribing team at Voyager Medical has received a wide range of questions regarding esketamine availability in the UK. We have now created a dedicated page called Frequently Asked Questions about Esketamine, click the link for more information.
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